Israel arrests 100 Palestinian women in latest round-up

Israeli troops arrested 100 Palestinian women in an overnight raid Thursday, the latest in a series of round-ups around the West Bank city of Nablus in search of those responsible for the murder of a Jewish settler family last month.

AFP - Israeli troops stormed a village near near Nablus early Thursday, arresting more than 100 women as they hunted the killers of an Israeli family, local officials said.

Hundreds of troops entered Awarta shortly after midnight and imposed a curfew after which they began rounding up the women, local council head Tayis Awwad told AFP.

They continued to conduct house-to-house searches through the night, he said. Palestinian security sources confirmed the same information.

The army has been conducting frequent raids on the village for the past four weeks, arresting scores of villagers following last month's murders of a family living in the nearby settlement of Itamar.

But Thursday's raid marked the first time they had arrested any women, Awwad said.

Since March 11, the village, which lies just south of Nablus, has been the centre of a massive manhunt in the aftermath of the grisly stabbing of a Jewish couple and their three young children, one of them a baby, as they slept in their beds in the nearby settlement of Itamar.

Following the murders, troops entered Awarta and imposed a curfew for five straight days, conducting house-to-house searches for the killers, who are believed to be Palestinian.

Last week, they entered the village again and imposed a curfew, but so far no one has been charged, with the military refusing to comment on the operation.